Pointing to possible signs of involvement by IP Edge LLC and US Innovation Fund LLC, defendant Shopify earlier this year asked the Western District of Texas to require identification of all third parties with a financial interest in litigation filed by Lower48 IP, LLC—and disclosure of the scope of those interests. District Judge David A. Ezra has now affirmed a magistrate’s denial of Shopify’s motion to compel, finding that neither a need to rule out judicial conflict of interest, nor precedent in the Western District of Texas, necessitates disclosure beyond what has already been provided to the court.

Magistrate Judge Derek T. Gilliland has denied a motion filed by Shopify to compel Texas plaintiff Lower48 IP LLC “to identify all third-party interests in this action, including the identity of any individuals or entities that have financial interests in the outcome of this litigation, such as investors or litigation funders, and the scope of those interests”. Shopify had asked the court to impose the heightened disclosure rules that Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly is now enforcing in his Delaware courtroom, pointing to evidence that others familiar to patent monetization might well be invested in the litigation—others that, per Shopify, the court should consider when evaluating potential conflicts of interest.

Last September, Texas plaintiff Lower48 IP LLC accused Shopify (6:22-cv-00997) of infringing four patents generally related to database organization and data representation through the provision of a long list of products and services using the GraphQL query language. Lower48 IP filed the complaint in the Western District of Texas, with initially presiding District Judge Frank Montalvo (identified under that court’s recently instated random assignment policy) swapped out for District Judge David Alan Ezra roughly within a week. As required, Lower48 IP disclosed to the court parent Lower48 Analytics, Inc., “a data analysis and portfolio management services provider to the oil and gas industry” formed in Texas in July 2017, but Shopify has asked Judge Ezra to consider imposing the heightened disclosure rules that Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly is enforcing in his Delaware courtroom in this West Texas case—to compel Lower48 IP “to identify all third-party interests in this action, including the identity of any individuals or entities that have financial interests in the outcome of this litigation, such as investors or litigation funders, and the scope of those interests”. Per Shopify, such heightened disclosure is “essential for determining whether there is a conflict of interest between any party and the Court”.